Light Painting: The Story Behind a Polaroid Image

Light painting is a creative, almost magical technique: you draw with light, and photography keeps its trace. Artists like Paolo Roversi have explored it beautifully, creating sensitive and captivating images. And the good news is that with a Polaroid Now+, color i-Type film, and the Polaroid app (Light Painting mode), this magic becomes simple and playful.

Preparing the shoot

The session takes place in the basement of our Nation Photo Lamartine store. Raul, our Polaroid specialist, walks down the stairs, switches off the lights, and lets the dimness settle in. He lines up the gear on a table: a tripod to keep the camera perfectly still, the loaded Polaroid Now+, and a fresh pack of color i-Type film. On his phone, the Polaroid app is open in Light Painting mode. In the bottom of his bag: a portable lamp, a smaller flashlight for fine details, and a small pouch of color filters.

Raul mounts the camera on the tripod and turns off the flash. In the app, he selects Light Painting. The quiet of the basement takes over: everything is ready.

Raul Diaz, the maestro of Polaroid

First stroke of light

The timer displays “Start.” Raul breathes. He raises the lamp toward the lens and draws a first curve, just to “warm up” the scene. The line appears on the screen like an invisible thread only the Polaroid will see. He changes tools: the small flashlight for more precision. He draws a circle freehand, then another. Halfway through, he slips a red filter over the lamp; the line transforms, as if the light were changing its voice.

First shot. The camera “purrs,” and the photo ejects.

The reveal

A few minutes later, the chemistry finishes its dance. The blue light drifting in from the stairwell has melted into a soft violet, red strokes crossing amber reflections. It’s not a perfect image; it’s better than that: a trace of a gesture, a fragment of time made tangible. Raul smiles—it's exactly what he hoped for: a photograph that tells the story of the moment and the hand that drew it.

He starts another exposure. This time, he slightly lowers the exposure in the app to darken the ambience, steps farther away, moves more slowly. The lines become sharper, almost calligraphic. Two shots, three shots: each Polaroid has its own personality.

Why Polaroid?

Polaroid has a unique way of rewarding boldness. It turns experimentation into an object. No screen to swipe through—just a unique image you can hold in your hand, share, store, and that carries all the little surprises of analog photography.

Light painting isn’t just a technique; it’s a language. And Polaroid is the ideal writing paper.

Tips hidden between the lines

⋅ Turn off anything that could interfere: lamps, signs, screens. The night is your canvas.
⋅ Point the lamp toward the camera for crisp strokes around your subject, or from the side if you’re “painting” a face or object.

A workshop to get started

Light painting is a creative—almost magical—technique for making photographs. The Polaroid Now+ makes it easy and fun. Paired with color i-Type film and the app, it opens up a world of fantastic, colorful images.

That’s the spirit of the two-hour workshop led by Raul. We take the time to explain, then we make images together. You leave with the method, ideas, and above all, your own Polaroid photos. Just bring a sharp eye and a creative heart—we’ll take care of the rest.

I'm in!